From Carnegie Hall to smoky dives, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to legendary folk music venue Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, bassist Jim Guttmann has played everything from klezmer to classical — and most styles in between.
He joined the Klezmer Conservatory Band at its inception; as a member of the band, he has toured nationally and internationally, performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman and Joel Grey, and performed on all the band’s recordings and coordinated the production of the last five. He has recorded and performed klezmer music with Andy Statman, Alicia Svigals’ Klezmer Fiddle Express, Art Bailey’s Orkestra Popilar and with Michael Winograd and Pete Sokolow’s Tarras Band, a tribute to the great klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras.
Guttman is a founding member of the Really Eclectic String Quartet and has worked with renowned entertainers and musicians, including singers Eartha Kitt and Mark Murphy, the Really Eclectic String Quartet, blues masters Johnny Shines and James Cotton, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Texas swing legend Tiny Moore, new acoustic music guitar virtuoso Russ Barenberg, the Artie Shaw Orchestra and many more.
In 1986, he organized and served as the musical director and bassist for the Tufts University Jazz Festival's “Soul to Soul: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin.” He was a member of the 2004 Grammy Award-winning ensemble that recorded Yehudi Wyner’s “The Mirror.” In 2010, he released Bessarabian Breakdown,” his first CD as a leader.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
